Let me explain what’s going on with Atari.
There’s a misconception that Atari is Infrogrames. In reality, Infrogrames hasn’t been Atari since 2013. That’s when Atari emerged from bankruptcy and was bought by Ker Ventures.
Ker Ventures was owned by Frederic Chesnais who used to be the COO and CFO of Infogrames but left in 2007 to buy Microprose.
Chesnais had very little interest in Atari as a video game publisher. Instead, he was obsessed with the brand and sought to leverage it for hotels, casinos, and crypto. He was so little interested in Atari’s video game business that he essentially sold as much of Atari’s IP as he could. More on this in a moment.
That said, Chesnais did one thing right, and that was move Atari back into the video game console market with the crowd-funded Ataribox – later known as the VCS.
In 2020, a company known as Ziggurat Interactive bought a huge portfolio of IP from Atari. This company was founded by a fellow named Wade Rosen.
That same year, Wade Rosen bought a substantial amount of shares from Ker Ventures and became the Chairman of Atari.
At this point, Atari split into two companies: Atari Gaming and Atari Blockchain. Atari Gaming was run by Wade Rosen and Atari Blockchain was run by Chesnais.
Then in 2022, Atari Gaming essentially cut ties with Atari Blockchain as well as with Chesnais. They virtually disavowed their NFTs, known as Atari Token, and disclaimed it as “unlicensed”.
In 2023, a new entity known as Irata – which is Atari spelled backwards – acquired all shares that were owned by Ker Ventures. Irata became the majority and controlling shareholder of Atari.
Who owns Irata? Wade Rosen.
The same year that Irata bought Atari, they went on an acquisition spree. They bought Nightdive Studios, Digital Eclipse, AtariAge, M Network, MobyGames, and the Stern Electronics catalog.
This year, they bought the Intellivision brand and catalog to boot.
The question is, “Why?”
Well, remember the Ziggurat Interactive, the other company Rosen owns?
For the past decade, they’ve bought a host of video game IP: BloodRayne, Enclave, A Boy and His Blob, etc. And what they did was license their IP to indie developers like Nightdive Studios who would either to a reboot or remake.
Well, Ziggurat Interactive is only publishing one game this year. And who is making that game?
Nightdive Studios.
Nightdive Studios – an Atari subsidiary – is developing a game owned by Ziggurat Interactive, a company that happens to be owned by Atari CEO Wade Rosen.
That game is Killing Time Resurrected.
Now what’s the purpose of all this? Ziggurat Interactive and Atari are following the same playbook:
- Release old video game franchises
- Remaster them
- Re-imagine them
- Make sequels
This is exactly what’s happened with System Shock. The original game was re-released to work on modern hardware. It then gets a big remaster. And rumours now abound that a System Shock III is in development.
How many games does Ziggurat Interactive and Atari collectively own? Currently, I count 300+ games that are currently available now.
“But wait,” you’re asking, “Who the hell would be interested in some of these obscure titles that have been dormant for decades?”
Mostly, it’s indie developers. The folks making most of these Atari games are essentially indie developers in search of a franchise. They want some sort of IP that’s recognizable because developing new IP is hard.
15,000 new games are released on Steam each year, and anything that helps an indie developer stand out from the crowd is valuable for marketing.
This explains why practically every new Atari game is made by some independent developer. Atari isn’t making these games. They’re essentially letting indies develop with their IP.